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18
social condition, and small enough to admit of detailed study,
would yield results of greater value than those obtained from
the comparison of larger and more heterogeneous areas such
as the metropolitan boroughs. As a step in this direction, I
have calculated the birth-rates in five of the 126 census
enumeration districts which make up the Borough of Battersea.
The selected districts were as follows:—District 29 in East
Battersea, comprising the group of streets round Belfour
Street; districts 9 and to in North-West Battersea, comprising
Orville Road and its vicinity; and districts 31 and
35 in South-West Battersea, which include the area
at the southern end of Bolingbroke Grove. The three
former districts are amongst the poorest, and the two latter
amongst the wealthiest portions of the Borough. The percentage
proportion of domestic servants to separate occupiers
in these districts at the last census was 5, 7.84, 5.35, 71.37,
and 84.07 respectively. This percentage, however, must not
be taken as a precise indicator of differences in social condition;
district 9 is poorer than district 10, although its percentage
of domestic servants is slightly higher. The differences in the
birth-rates in the year 1905 between the group comprising the
three poorer districts, and that made up of the two wealthier
districts, are shown in the following table:—
Enumeration
Districts.
Population
Census,
1901.
Births, 1905.
Legitimate.
Illegitimate.
Birth-rate
per 1,000
Population
Legitimate
Births
per 1,000
Married Women
aged 15—45.
Nos. 9, 10, 29 5,191 179 3 35.06 270.4
No. 31, 35 2,786 25 Nil 8.97 102.0
It will be noted that the rates have been calculated on the
census population. This, however, does not vitiate the results,
for from my knowledge of these areas I am able to affirm that
the number of the inhabitants has not changed materially since
1901.